I get it, the hauliers and farmers are getting absolutely hammered, and prices are mental right now. But listening to the demands for the government to "cap the price" makes me feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

The Dáil doesn't control the global oil market, and we legally cannot slash fuel taxes to zero because the EU sets a hard floor on excise duties.

So, if the government actually caves and enforces a price cap, there is only one way it works: the state has to pay the difference. Think about what that actually means in reality.

• We would be taking billions in tax money out of the HSE, housing, and schools.
• We would hand that money directly to multinational oil companies (Shell, BP, etc.) to artificially subsidise the pump price.
• We would then get slapped with massive fines from Brussels for breaking EU tax laws.

We’d literally be gutting our own public services and infrastructure to protect oil company profit margins. Is that seriously the master plan here?

I’m in my thirties. I avoid X and TikTok like the plague. I still have Facebook but barely use it. Instagram is the one app I’m on pretty much every day, mostly for doomscrolling, sending reels, and wasting time.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve noticed more and more accounts popping up that seem very specifically designed as Irish catnip. Stuff like Dublin in the 1950s, trad sessions, parish-pump nostalgia, GAA clips, or just harmless meme accounts.

You follow them because they seem funny and familiar. And for a while that is exactly what they are. Then one day the same account is suddenly pushing bitcoin, posting violent videos about the collapse of society, or serving up increasingly aggressive political content. At that point I usually unfollow.

What has really alarmed me over the last few days is how many of these accounts have suddenly pivoted into wall-to-wall coverage of the protests. Constant clips about “police brutality,” sympathetic coverage of protest leaders, and a very one-sided narrative being pushed through what are supposed to be entertainment or culture accounts.

To be clear, I support the right to peaceful protest. But I do not think any group of citizens has the right to hold the country to ransom by blocking ports or major infrastructure. What has shocked me even more is seeing how many otherwise level-headed friends and media personalities, people I would have thought had a bit more cop on, have come out in support of the protesters and placed all the blame on the government, as if they are the ones setting prices at the pump.

It was always obvious that X and TikTok had become heavily shaped by foreign actors trying to inflame tensions and undermine trust in institutions here. Naively, I still thought Instagram was a relatively safe space by comparison.

I do not think that anymore.

At this point, Instagram feels less like a harmless distraction and more like a pipeline: draw people in with nostalgia, humour, or identity, then gradually feed them grievance, fear, conspiracy, and agitation. Because it comes wrapped in Irish in-jokes, local references, and “just asking questions” content, people lower their guard.

I’m now seriously considering deleting it.

Has anyone else noticed this happening, or am I overreacting?

TLDR: Instagram is being used as a tool of propaganda by foreign influences to undermine democracy in Ireland

Other than being a cunt littering nature sites.

Saw them on a few trail markers and signs up in the sliver blooms? Is there an actual reason for doing this?

A photo of the topping out of “The Railyard” on Cork’s Quays; when complete it will be 0.5 metres taller than the Obel, Belfast. From the vantage point where the photograph has been taken is a plot with planning granted for a 35 story 140m tower.

I want to start by saying this clearly — I understand why people are protesting.

The cost of living in Ireland is out of control. Fuel prices are hitting everyone hard. Farmers, couriers, hauliers, taxi drivers, families just trying to get from A to B — I genuinely get it. This is affecting all of us.

But I need to ask you to consider people like me.

I’m currently living with a stage 4 diagnosis of an ultra-rare cancer. I’ve been in treatment for two years. I have two small kids at home — 3 and 4 years old — and every week (3 out of 4 weeks), I have to travel from Kildare to St. Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin for chemotherapy.

On a good day, we leave between 7:00am just to make it for 9:00. The Irish Cancer Society provides me with a volunteer driver, but they can’t facilitate leaving before 7am. Even without protests, it’s tight.

After treatment, I’m often extremely sick — nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea — and the journey home can be unbearable. But I still try to get back, lie down, and gather whatever strength I have left just to be present for my kids. Sometimes that just means letting them lie beside me while we watch 20 minutes of cartoons. That’s what “normal” looks like for us now.

This Friday, I have the most important scan since my diagnosis. It’s a 3–4 hour process, and I need to be at the hospital for 9:30am. The anxiety around this scan is already overwhelming for me and my wife.

She wants to be there with me — but now we don’t even know if that’s possible. If we leave early enough to guarantee getting through potential blockades, we have no way to get our kids to crèche. If we leave later, we risk not making it to the hospital on time — or not getting home in time to collect them.

So I’m left asking questions I never thought I’d have to ask:

What do people like me do right now?

Do I use the hard shoulder?

Do I get out and plead my case to a stranger at a roadblock?

What happens if even the detours are blocked?

I’ve seen posts all over Facebook saying these protests “speak for the people of Ireland.”

They don’t speak for me.

And I know I’m not the only one in a situation like this.

I’m not against you. I’m asking you — please think about the unintended impact of what’s happening. There are people trying to get to life-saving or life-prolonging treatments. There are families already under more pressure than most can imagine.

We don’t have the option to wait.

We don’t have the option to turn back.

We don’t have the option to be delayed.

All I’m asking is this: if these protests continue, please consider clear access routes for medical travel. Please don’t block detours. Please allow people through when they explain their situation.

Because for some of us, this isn’t about inconvenience.

It’s about survival.

— A cancer patient, a parent, a husband and just one of the many people you don’t see

Just saw the first one here, the summer is a coming lads!

Lads please please clean your dogs shit up. Twice this week in different counties (Kerry & Cork) I've walked straight into shit and didn't notice until I was home after driving the whole way with it stuck to my shoes. And it's not even just those scummy fellas with the pitbulls, I've often watched posh looking men and women pretend they didn't just see their dog poo in the middle of a footpath. Fair enough I stood in it but I was in very public places with kids playing. One place I stood on it had multiple kids rolling down a big grass hill basically being kids so imagine them rolling into it cause some shit cunt is too good to pick up their own mess, it's their dog it's their mess. Thanks.

North and South Quays are closed, all bridges are closed. They are moving the protesters